Rod McKuen

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Rod McKuen (1972)

Rodney Marvin McKuen (born April 29, 1933 in Oakland , California - † January 29, 2015 in Beverly Hills , California) was an American poet , composer and singer-songwriter .

life and work

McKuen, born in Oakland in 1933, fled from his alcoholic and violent stepfather at the age of 11 and lived on the American west coast a. a. as a farm assistant, surveyor, lumberjack, rodeo rider and stuntman. He later worked as a columnist and participated in the Korean War as a propaganda writer. After returning to the USA, he performed in San Francisco, initially with folk songs, and later with his own songs, and in the late 1950s he recorded several albums for Decca Records . He also sang in Lionel Hamptons band and appeared in films such as Pretty Baby (1956) and Summer Love (1958).

In the 1960s McKuen lived in France and translated numerous chansons by Jacques Brels into English. Titles such as If You Go Away , sung a. a. by Neil Diamond , and Seasons in the Sun sung by Terry Jacks ; the singer Scott Walker recorded several of these adaptations on record. McKuen also translated chansons by Gilbert Bécaud , Pierre Delanoë , Michel Sardou and others.

In the second half of the 1960s he published books of poetry such as Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows , Listen to the Warm and Lonesome Cities , with which he had great success in the hippie scene. The album Lonesome Cities was awarded a Grammy (Best Spoken Word Recording) in 1968 . With the arranger Anita Kerr and the San Sebastian Strings he recorded a number of pop albums from 1967, including The Sea (1967), The Earth (1967), The Sky (1968), Home to the Sea (1969), For Lovers ( 1969) and The Soft Sea (1970). For Frank Sinatra he wrote the songs for the album A Man Alone . In 1971 the singles Soldiers Who Want To Be Heroes and Without a Worry in the World were released , both of which reached number 1 on the Dutch singles charts .

In the 1960s and 1970s, he also composed some successful film scores, including the 1969 soundtrack to The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ( The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ) and 1971 the original core to Cowboy John - The Last Hero in the Wild West . For the song Jean he was nominated for an Oscar (Best Song), another Oscar nomination brought him the music for the film A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1970).

McKuen later also turned to classical music. He composed symphonies, orchestral suites, instrumental concerts and chamber music works. His piece The City: A Suite for Narrator and Orchestra was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He also recorded other albums such as New Ballads (1970), Pastorale (1971) and McKuen Country (1976). In 1977 his autobiographical book Finding My Father was published . From 1998 he published poems, music, photographs and a daily column on the Internet site Rod McKuen / A Safe Place To Land . His book A Safe Place To Land , which came with new poems and two music CDs, was named after the website .

In total, McKuen recorded more than 200 albums, received more than 60 gold and platinum records worldwide, and published more than thirty volumes of poetry, which have been translated into a dozen languages. His songs have been recorded by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Madonna , Perry Como , Petula Clark , Daliah Lavi , Waylon Jennings , Chet Baker , Pete Fountain , Andy Williams , Percy Faith , Dusty Springfield , Johnny Mathis and Al Hirt .

McKuen died on January 29, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 81 of complications from pneumonia .

Trivia

In the Peanuts Comic Strip of October 3, 1969 (including repeated on September 30, 2016) he was mentioned by Sally Brown, who said that even he could not draw cow legs.

Awards ceremonies

  • 1969: Oscar nomination for Rod McKuen in the category "Best Music (Song - Original for the Picture)" at the 1970 award ceremony for Jean
  • 1970: Oscar nomination for Rod McKuen in the category "Best Music (Original Song Score)" at the 1971 award ceremony for the film A Boy Named Charlie Brown

Filmography

Web links

Commons : Rod McKuen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Films with the music of Rod McKuen in the two thousand and one film dictionary
  2. ^ Margalit Fox: Rod McKuen, Prolific Poet and Lyricist, Dies at 81. In: The New York Times, January 29, 2015 (English, accessed January 30, 2015).
  3. ^ Search «Peanuts. Retrieved September 30, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Oscar nomination for Rod McKuen in the category "Best Music (Song - Original for the Picture)" at the 1970 award ceremony for Jean
  5. ↑ Oscar nomination for Rod McKuen in the category "Best Music (Original Song Score)" at the 1971 award ceremony for the film A Boy Named Charlie Brown
personal data
SURNAME McKuen, Rod
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McKuen, Rodney Marvin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American singer-songwriter, lyricist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Oakland , California
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 2015
Place of death Beverly Hills , California